Abstract

This chapter adds to the recent explosion of interest in second language (L2) Mandarin Chinese by focusing on how linguistic proficiency develops during study abroad (SA) in China across a range of written and oral tasks. The research presented here, drawn from one of the first systematic longitudinal investigations of SA in China (Wright & Zhang, 2014), was carried out in order to track written and oral proficiency development in L2 Mandarin Chinese, using an innovative task-based approach that used both planned and unplanned written and spoken tasks. An exploratory approach was taken to explore why improvements in different tasks may be highly varied for participants, despite the apparent similarity of their experience of immersion in the target language.

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